Film Negative Art

Upcycling artist Nick Gentry has a gorgeous new collection of film negative art. Gentry is a London based artist who loves to work with obsolete materials. We’ve previously featured Gentry’s beautiful floppy disc art. In his latest collection he uses film negatives to create incredible portraits.

You might know about Nick Gentry from his earlier upcycled art made from floppy discs and x-rays. Nick Gentry’s art is all about creating portraiture from obsolete materials. His techniques evolve over time as do his concepts and materials. In his latest collection, he focuses on film negatives as the upcycled material of choice.

Gentry’s upcycled art is a commentary on the ever-growing impact of technology on consumers and communities. While Gentry’s style of art is portraiture, his subjects remain anonymous.

I don’t consider the faces to be the subject. In that way, it’s not like traditional portraiture. The materials really are central to my work as that is where the real identity resides. I’m quite happy with the faces being unknown and ambiguous.

By creating art from obsolete materials, Nick Gentry is commenting on a society quickly moving from one technology to another.

I’d imagine that young people today would see these things as artefacts, maybe with a sense of mystery. It’s interesting, as the objects themselves remain the same, it’s us that changed.

A successful upcycling artist, Nick Gentry has made a name for himself internationally. His most recent exhibit was at the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami. He has an upcoming show in April at the Absolute Art Gallery in Belgium.

As for advice to aspiring upcycling artists, Gentry says:

I think you can’t really plan these things, it’s mostly a case of working hard and being persistent. I just wanted to draw and paint and to do something original. If you are doing something unique then I think that also helps as well.

Nick Gentry relies on donated materials in order to create his film negative art. Gentry considers the true subjects of his art to be in the materials. He believes that the portraits created reflect the materials used.

If you’d like to contribute some film negatives, you can send them to: